First Edition Cycling News, September 29, 2008

Riis announces new Team Saxo Bank co-sponsor

The company owned by Bjarne Riis, Riis Cycling, hosted a press conference
in the sumptuous 19th century Villa Andrea in Varese on Sunday, to announce
the integration of a new main co-sponsor to the Saxo Bank team, Danish
software business IT Factory. The new sponsor will back the team as of
January 1, 2009, and has signed a deal with the cycling management company
for a total of three years. As of next season, the Danish team will thus
be called Team Saxo Bank-IT Factory.

Stein Bagger, CEO of IT Factory, was happy the cooperation with Saxo
Bank was made possible by Riis' main sponsor. The deal was worked out
after the Tour de France. "For us, this means an excellent communication
platform to increase global awareness of our company," Bagger said.
"Also, we want to create the first web-based anti-doping control
system, available to all cyclists and the general public alike, as our
special contribution to the sport." (Watch out for a follow-up story
on this topic coming up on Cyclingnews.)

To Riis, the new sponsorship meant an additional stability in financing
his team. "With Saxo Bank and now also IT Factory, we have established
a foundation that will take us a long way into the future," he said.
"We now have two strong companies supporting us and a budget enabling
us to realize our ambitions."

These included continuing to support the team's main players, Fabian
Cancellara and the Schleck brothers, as well as building up young talent.
Riis denied having any plans to take on Alberto Contador for the moment.
"At this time, we have no interest in signing him," he said.
"We have big stars on the team that we are going to stick with. Andy
Schleck is the biggest talent in cycling right now, and I am sure that
he will be a source of success over the next ten years. One day, he will
be on the top spot in Paris [winning the Tour de France - ed.]. I believe
very strongly in him."

CSC, which has sponsored the team since 2001, is set to leave its role
as title sponsor at the end of 2008. Saxo
Bank came onboard as a joint title sponsor in June, just prior to
the Tour de France.

No consequences for Schleck - yet

Inevitably, Bjarne Riis' team's press conference also addressed the subject
of Fränk Schleck's alleged
2006 payment to Eufemiano Fuentes' Swiss bank account, revealed by
a German newspaper on Friday. Riis commented that Schleck had told him
he had "a clear conscience. Fränk said he never doped or used
any doping substances or methods. He said he has not compromised the team's
or the UCI's code of ethics. He asked us to give him the opportunity to
explain himself in front of the Luxembourg anti-doping commission, and
we will allow him to do so. After that, he will explain himself to us."

Riis also used the opportunity to try and clear his own name in the light
of the allegations of the Süddeutsche Zeitung, according to
which Schleck was seen at the apartment of the Operación Puerto
doctor in the company of Riis in 2006.

"I can guarantee to a 100 percent that you will never find my name
in any of the Puerto documents. I have never had anything to do
with that case or with that Spanish doctor. I can guarantee you that,"
he said.

Still, journalists insisted on the affair, asking if Schleck had denied
that he made that payment of approximately 7,000 euros to the bank account.
Proof of the transaction is reportedly available to a Luxembourg prosecutor's
office. "We did not ask him that question exactly," Riis said.
"We haven't had the time yet. Once again, we granted him his wish
to explain himself before the anti-doping commission first."

There are thus no consequences for the Saxo Bank rider at the moment.
Asked if the team would use the possibility of suspending Schleck, Riis
responded, "We will act depending on how this case unfolds. We need
clear facts before we can make any decisions." No date was yet announced,
though, as to the hearing of Schleck in front of his country's anti-doping
commission.

The new sponsor, as well as Saxo Bank, supported Riis' stance. "We
will follow the team's rules and decisions with regard to anti-doping,"
said Kim Fournais, founder and CEO of Saxo Bank. "Unless there is
a coordinated effort in the team to cheat - which would be a different
story. But there is always the possibility of one or two riders making
mistakes. And in that case, we trust Bjarne Riis knows what to do."

Visconti and Grivko to lead Italian-Ukrainian team

Ukraine will become the third Eastern European country with its own team
competing at the highest level of professional cycling after Kazakhstan with the Astana team and Russia with the Katyusha team. A new Ukrainian team, the
ISD-Danieli Team, will be based in Tuscany and be led by team manager Angelo
Citracca in the 2009 season.

"We've been working from the foundation - our amateur team Neri
Lucchini - and we've signed an agreement with the Ukrainian cycling federation
for bringing its riders up to the top level of world cycling," Citracca
told Cyclingnews in Varese, site of the UCI Road World Championships.

Previously known as the Finauto team, Neri Lucchini has produced excellent
riders in the past under the guidance of Luca Scinto. The former super
domestique of Michele Bartoli at MG Technogym, ASICS and Mapei has become
a successful coach after retiring at the end of 2002. He was a great help
to Mario Cipollini, who claimed the World Championship title in Zolder,
Belgium.

It's no surprise that a few former pupils of Scinto will be members
of the new ISD-Danieli team. The most famous of them is Giovanni Visconti,
who was the Italian champion last year and wore the pink jersey for seven
days at the Giro d'Italia this year.

"I've always believed in Visconti as the new Bartoli for his racing
style at the one day races," Scinto said. The 2005 U23 World Champion
in Madrid, Dmytro Grabovsky, will also return with the Italian coach after
two years at Quick Step.

Finally, a major acquisition for ISD Danieli will be Andriy Grivko from
Milram.

Eleven riders have signed for the team so far, all from Italy or Ukraine:
Maxim Belkov (neo pro), Volodymy Dyudya (Milram), Dmytro Grabovsky (Quick
Step), Andriy Grivko (Milram), Denys Kostyuk (ISD Sport Donetsk), Yuriy
Metlushenko (Amore e Vita), Ruslan Pidgornyy (LPR), Alessandro Proni (Quick
Step), Leonardo Scarselli (Quick Step), Giovanni Visconti (Quick Step)
and Emmanuele Vona (neo pro). Two big names of Italian cycling are expected
to join the team in the coming days, one as a member of the staff and
one as a rider.

"It's our intention to make the team grow fast," Citracca
said.

McQuaid pleased with peace deal

ProTour changes take effect as of 2011

By Hedwig Kröner in Varese, with additional reporting from Shane Stokes

At the UCI's press conference on Saturday at the world championships
in Varese, Pat McQuaid expressed his satisfaction with the peace deal
that has been forged between the governing body and the Grand Tour organisers.
As previously mentioned on Cyclingnews, Editions Philippe Amaury
(EPA, owner of Tour de France organiser ASO), Giro d'Italia owner RCS
and Vuelta a España owner Unipublic signed
an agreement with the UCI on Thursday, ending the long disputes over
the ProTour and other issues.

"Things have been worked out now," said McQuaid. "The agreement has been
signed, and the pathway for the future has been laid out.

"We agreed the large part of the agreement back in August, and since
then we have been working on the last points. Jean-Claude Killy [former
president of ASO - ed.] and the other mediators were involved right until
the very end."

The change in the French company's stance was pushed forward by Marie-Odile
Amaury, the widow of the deceased Philipppe Amaury, who repaired her company's
damaged ties with the UCI via the International Olympic Committee.

McQuaid, who will again be candidate for the UCI presidency election
taking place next year, was confident that relations between the three
Grand Tour organisers would be rebuilt over the coming months. "It is
now a question of working together with the organisers and rebuilding
relationships. My desire is that relations with the Tour go back to the
way they were a few years ago. I genuinely feel that the people we are
dealing with in EPA are sincere, honest, and have the same desires as
us."

McQuaid added that he hadn't yet spoken directly with Tour director Christian
Prudhomme, having dealt directly with his superiors in the EPA, but expects
to do so at the launch of the Tour de France.

Officials at ASO, a company owned by EPA, have not yet responded publicly
to the news. While changes at the top management level of ASO have been
rumoured to be true for weeks, nothing to date has been made official.

The peace deal also meant that the suspension of the French federation
FFC was lifted. Procedures underway against the President of the FFC,
Jean Pitallier, and the President of the AIGCP, Eric Boyer and the International
Commissaire Joël Ménard at Paris-Nice were also brought to an end, setting
things up for a far more relaxed meeting between the UCI and all its federations
on Friday.

Meier sticking with Garmin

By Daniel Friebe, Procycling Magazine

The reigning Canadian national road race champion Christian Meier has
confirmed that he will be riding for the Garmin-Chipotle team for the
next two seasons. After pulling out of the world road race championships
at the 210km mark on Sunday, Meier revealed that he has signed for Garmin
on a permanent basis. He will thus join his friend and compatriot Svein
Tuft, who committed to the US-based team after his second-place in the
men's time trial on Thursday.

Meier has been riding for Garmin as a stagiaire since August, impressing
the team's directeurs sportif at the Tour of Portugal, in particular.
He describes himself as competent all-rounder most at home on the short,
often steep climbs typically found in the Ardennes Classics. The 23 year-old
from New Brunswick made history this year by becoming the first ever rider
from Atlantic Canada to claim the Maple Leaf jersey of national champion.

"I'm pretty excited about it, and about joining the team with Svein.
Now I have the Circuit Franco-Belge, maybe Paris-Tours, Giro del Piemonte
and the Tour of Lombardy, but I can't wait for next season," Meier
said in Varese on Sunday.

The November issue of Procycling Magazine will feature an interview
with Meier about his experience riding as a stagiaire for Garmin.

Last race for Crédit Agricole

The Crédit Agricole team will compete in its last race, Paris-Tours,
on October 12, according to team manager Roger Legeay. Legeay told the
AFP that the squad would be led by William Bonnet and Sebastien
Hinault, two of the team's men who were not racing the World Championship
this week in Varese, Italy.

Crédit Agricole decided to withdraw its sponsorship of the French
team after ten seasons. Many of the squad's riders have already been signed
by other teams including Cervelo, Bouygues Telecom, Cofidis, Française
des Jeux, AG2R and Katusha, Lampre.

Popovych to retire?

Yaroslav Popovych has decided to leave his Silence-Lotto team and his
career as a professional racer according to the Dutch Wieler Revue.
The news, still to be confirmed by Popovych and his team, comes just
one day after Silence
signed Thomas Dekker.

The 28 year-old Popovych hails from Ukraine and has previously ridden
for Landbouwkrediet-Colnago and Discovery Channel. He is perhaps best
known for helping Lance Armstrong win the 2005 Tour de France with the
Discovery team. He has subsequently worked for Alberto Contador and Levi
Leipheimer at Discovery Channel, but later moved to Silence-Lotto in 2008,
in part to support the Tour de France bid of contender Cadel Evans.

Landis takes case to US federal court

After losing his anti-doping case before the Court of Arbitration for
Sport, Floyd Landis took an unusual next step. In US Federal Court, he
is challenging the CAS decision to uphold his positive doping test verdict.
He and his lawyers are arguing that the arbitrators who heard his case
had conflicts of interest, causing his hearing to be unfair.

According to ESPN.com, lawyers filed a motion "to vacate
the June arbitrators' award in Landis' appeal to the Court of Arbitration
for Sport" in a Los Angeles US District Court on Thursday.

In the motion, lawyers argued that all three arbitrators on the panel,
including the one selected by Landis, ought to have revealed conflicts
of interest that may have biased them. The conflicts, as defined by Landis'
team, are that the arbitrators were selected from a short list of people
who take turns serving in roles such as panellists and lawyers for clients
appearing before panels. The switching of roles purportedly influences
them to issue rulings that will benefit each other or will help anti-doping
agencies with procuring future work and cases.

One of the arbitrators on the Landis case, Richard Young, told ESPN.com,
that he followed CAS rules which specify that arbitrators may not be on
panels when representing other clients in pending CAS cases.

The motion cited six CAS cases in which athletes faced the International
Olympic Committee (IOC) while it was represented by Jan Paulsson, the
single arbitrator on Landis' case that was picked by Landis' legal team.
In addition to involvement with these other cases, Paulsson's law firm
represented London during its ultimately successful bid to host the 2012
Olympic Games - a decision made by the IOC.

"Thus, members of the Freshfields firm, particularly Mr. Paulsson,
have a significant economic incentive to espouse positions favorable to
the IOC and little interest in embracing positions taken by an athlete
with adverse interests," according to the motion.

Landis' motion also asks the court to overturn the US$100,000 fine for
legal costs he was ordered to pay by the CAS panel. It argues that the
fine was based on "unsworn statements by USADA's lawyer after the
close of evidence, denying Mr. Landis a right to respond," and it
called the award outside the "scope" of the mandate of the arbitrators.
Finally, the motion asks for a jury trial.

Landis won the 2006 Tour de France, but the title was subsequently taken
away after he tested positive for testosterone and the American Arbitration
Association upheld the decision. Landis received a two-year suspension,
which will end January 29, 2009, leaving him free to race most of next
season. However, USADA has told Landis he cannot race again until the
$100,000 fine is paid. Landis is expected to
race with Health Net in 2009.

What remains to be determined is whether the US Federal Court will consider
itself to have jurisdiction over the case, which was decided at CAS headquarters
in Switzerland.

New Zealand seeking female talent in push for future medals

BikeNZ is launching the search for more Sarah Ulmers and Alison Shanks.
The New Zealand federation put out the call to female athletes including
those from a non-cycling background to become part of a talent pool of
riders through to the 2012 Olympics in London and beyond.

BikeNZ's Power to the Podium programme is aimed at identifying and selecting
female athletes for a development programme. It hopes to at least equal
the men's track cycling team achievement of securing two medals at the
Beijing Olympics.

High performance director Mark Elliott says BikeNZ wants female athletes
from all sports, including current cyclists, who are over the age of 17
to apply. It is keen to hear from those with an endurance background in
sports like rowing, running and triathlon.

Elliott says anything is possible for athletes with the right attributes.
"Alison Shanks was playing netball four years ago. With just three
years cycling experience behind her, she was a contender for an Olympic
medal, finishing fourth in Beijing in the 3000 metres individual pursuit."

"This programme provides the opportunity for athletes with the right
physiology, desire and talent to become world class track riders,"
said Elliott

BikeNZ and SPARC are investing in the programme, which will involve a
coach, support services for the athletes such as sports science and medicine,
training and performance tools, and travel and accommodation for competitions.

SPARC high performance manager Martin Toomey is excited by the initiative.
"Talent identification is crucial to ensuring New Zealand has a pool
of world class athletes. The Power to the Podium programme will enhance
BikeNZ's ability to have a group of talented riders with the potential
to win medals in 2012," Toomey said.

Athletes are being invited to apply to BikeNZ until October 1 and can
download application forms at www.bikenz.org.nz . Shortlisted athletes
will then be tested, with those selected going to a series of training
camps. The first of these will be held in Wanganui over October 27-30.